Julia Benally's Blog, page 19

The Secret Locket Unfolded

Yesterday, my story "The Secret Locket" came in the mail! See, isn't it so pretty? Just in time for Valentine's Day.


All the proceeds go to the American Heart Association. You can buy this book here.

This is my first romance story, with nothing freaky attached. It came about because one night, my mom and I were joking around about people with crushes, and what if this happened, but it was really this way. I can't say the joke, because it would give away the whole story.


As for the song Thomas was listening to, I heard that from a person who swore me to silence. Here it is!

Ten Weird Facts

I've been running into some seriously weird stuff, so here they are. We can be weirded out, or amazed, together.

1. The Aztecs used to turn their babies into jerky, and then live off of them when they crossed deserts.

2. Seven people fainted in France when "Eyes Without A Face" debuted in theaters in 1960.


3. Micheal Meyer's mask was inspired by the mask in "Eyes Without A Face."

4. When Giotto painted, he used egg yolk to make gold paint.

5. In one of the versions of Sleeping Beauty, there were vampires.

6. There is a version of Cinderella in almost every country.


7. Victor Hugo's "The Man Who Laughs" inspired DC's Joker.

8. Danvers State Hospital, also known as The Danvers Lunatic Asylum, inspired H.P. Lovecraft's "The Thing On the Doorstep," which in turn inspired Arkham Asylum in the Batman universe.

9. The tattoo across John Wick's back is Latin: "Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat," meaning Fortune Favors the Bold. It comes from the 3rd Battalion Marine base in Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii, and is a nod to Keanu Reeves' Hawaiian heritage, and to John Wick's past life.


10. Pinto beans can last 100 years. You can't boil them and eat them normally, but you can crush them into bean flour and use it to make bean pie, bean cake, bean pudding, bean pop, and all that nasty stuff. It's supposed to taste good, but I'm not vouching for that.

"The Cowboy Cabin" A trilogy completed!

"The Cowboy Cabin" started out nothing like what it is today, and it even had a different title. It went from a ghost story to a monster story, and from there, it went from a haunted house to a cowboy cabin. I went to a cornfield to receive inspiration for a Bigfoot story, and ended up with a scarecrow.


The scarecrow did many things before it did what it does in "The Cowboy Cabin." The ending was different, too. In fact, I rehashed the ending so many times that if I told you all of them, this post would take at least an hour to read. And that sucks, so I'm not gonna say. I'm just gonna say that James ended up very differently. If you really want to know, ask me on twitter. My handle is @SparrowCove.


Anyway, "The Cowboy Cabin" is connected to "Toni's Land " and "The Hairy Man." I was so thrilled when "The Cowboy Cabin" was accepted, that meant my trilogy was completed!

Choose Your Writing Tools Wisely

A writer tends to write what he or she reads. Literature is one of a writer's tools. In the words of Stephen King: "If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write."


That said, select your tools carefully. If you're reading trash, you'll produce trash. Do you want to paint words with a frayed brush and a broken handle that can give you and your readers splinters? Is the paint without, what I call, blood clots?


Keep an eye out for good and bad writing. Some pieces are written beautifully, but the story is a piece of junk, and on top of that, there might not even be a story in there. It could be somebody's rant for all you know. It would be like going to the dollar store and picking out some trashy speakers just because they're shiny and colorful.


When you're wandering the aisles of literature, testing out each potential tool, remember that just because it's there, doesn't mean it's legitimate.

The Inspiration Behind Tiger

I've had this idea floating around in my head for awhile, because somebody does own a tiger around these parts. I've always wondered what would happen if I was in the woods, and that thing had escaped, and I met it. That would suck.


One day, I was wondering about it again, and the story wove itself as I wrote. I knew it was a keeper then. Up to date, I believe I've worked on this story the hardest. It was in writing this story that I finally understood what Ernest Hemingway said:

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."


Come read the story here.

Camille: Movie Review...I should've stuck with Annie

Having a great day? Do you want to utterly ruin it? Watch "Camille," the 1936 story about an utterly playful, lovable woman who doesn't think that happiness can come her way. When it finally does, her lover's stupid father convinces her to leave him because of some higher class-lower class bull crap.


Filled with a despicable cast of characters who call themselves Marguerite's friends, who don't get theirs' in the end, and a punching bag that doesn't deserve it, "Camille" will make you laugh, cry, and ax the television set.


Of course, anyone's who's watched the original "Annie" will know how "Camille" ends.


Why didn't I just stick with "Annie"?

Rejection Letters: Pains in the Butt

Feeling bad today about your rejection letters? Did you just a get a bulk of letters telling you no? Rejection letters are such a pain in the butt. Here are excerpts from some of those notorious letters that I got. Some of the wretches came in a bulk.

1) IT'S MY BELIEF THAT DESERTS ARE SIGNIFICANTLY COOLER AT NIGHT. YOU COULDN'T SUSPEND MY BELIEF ENOUGH.

Arizona deserts can stay 100 degrees at midnight. This dame probably doesn't believe you can get into a wreck in the snow.


2) I COULDN'T TELL WHAT GENRE IT WAS.

Seriously? It's full of ghosts and death.

3) YOURS WAS ONE OF THE HIGH-QUALITY SUBMISSIONS WE'VE HAD TO REJECT.

Um...so why didn't you accept it?


4) I WOULD HAVE ACCEPTED THIS LAST YEAR.

Last year??? Screw you, too!

5) I READ THIS, HAVE LOTS OF SUBMISSION FOR ATMOSPHERE BECAUSE I LOOK AT LOTS OF THEM AND THE SUMBMISSIONS. I WISH I TO GAVE FEEDBACK ON ALL OF THEM.

I've been rejected by a man who can't write.

6) YOU DIDN'T PLACE. I LOOK FORWARD TO READING YOUR NEXT SUBMISSION!

What's that supposed to mean?

7) UNFORTUNATELY, YOUR STORY WAS NOT CHOSEN FOR THIS ISSUE. THREE RANDOM PEOPLE LOOK AT THE SUBMISSIONS EVERY TIME.

You mean this magazine is pure chance?


8) UNFORTUNATELY, I'M GOING TO HAVE TO PASS ON THIS ONE. I'M SORRY FOR BEING SO LATE IN RESPONDING. I GET SO MANY SUBMISSIONS THAT I CAN'T KEEP UP WITH ALL OF THEM.

Submission was sent two years ago. How is this wretch still in business?

In conclusion...


...keep writing.

Awesome Writing Quotes

I love reading writing quotes. They don't just teach, but they also let me know I'm going in the right direction. Here are a few that I love.

"If a nation loses its storytellers, it loses its childhood."
-Peter Handke


"If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative."
-Elmore Leonard

"If you tell the reader that Bull Beezely is a brutal-faced, loose-lipped bully, with snake's blood in his veins, the reader's reaction may be, "Oh, yeah!" But if you show the reader Bull Beezely raking the bloodied flanks of his weary, sweat-encrusted pony, flogging the tottering, red-eyed animal with a quirt, or have him booting in the protruding ribs of a starved mongrel and, boy, the reader believes!"
-Fred East


"I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide."
-Harper Lee

"I don't need an alarm clock. My ideas wake me."
-Ray Bradbury


"Beware of advice-even this."
-Carl Sandburg

"Let the world burn through you. Throw the prism of light, white hot, on paper."
-Ray Bradbury


"I don't believe in being serious about anything. I think life is too serious to be taken seriously."
-Ray Bradbury

"It's none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way."
-Ernest Hemingway

"Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk-away from any open flames-to remind yourself that if you don't write daily, you will get rusty."
-George Singleton
"There is only one plot-things are not what they seem."
-Jim Thompson

"Anyone who is going to be a writer knows enough at 15 to write several novels."
-Mary Sarton

"The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes."
-Andre Gide

Read this and guaranteed, 100%, you'll stay on your diet!

Having a hard time keeping on your diet? Does that food smell too good? Have no fear! You will stay on it. This is fail safe!

(This isn't me, because if it was, all the nails would be bitten off)
One day, there was a boy. He ate everything. He tried everything. He didn't even look at what he was trying until it was too late. There was a group of men using a pop can to spit their tobacco in. They didn't bother throwing it away and left it on the table. This crazy boy went over there after they had left, snatched up the can, and took several gulps before he realized what he was drinking.


Now, over here on Apache land, the Apaches were having a giant eat. A woman was mixing a massive potato salad in a metal trashcan--with her arms. She hadn't shaved in about a month, and hadn't bathed all day, so she was the grease queen. The mayonnaise stuck to all her armpit hairs. She then served everybody the potato salad.


Many years ago, a boy decided to take his little four-year-old niece next door to make friends with another four-year-old. He put them on the play-set and said he would be back in a little while. The little boy and girl gazed at one another. The little boy had a large green booger, like a slug, sliding out of his nose. He sucked it in, but it came back out. It dribbled onto his lips. He sucked it in again, but the green slug with yellow stripes oozed out. He finally licked it into his mouth.


One day, it was a marvelous day in grade school. They were having pizza for lunch. One little boy got himself a bunch of Ranch to dip his pizza in. He told everyone to try it. He said it was the most wonderful thing ever. He demonstrated. He dipped the pizza in and shoved it in his mouth, but he couldn't keep the food in. Ranch and red sauce dribbled from his mouth, stringing in his saliva like spiderwebs. He sucked his saliva up and said, "See? That's how you do it." Red and white stuck in his teeth, along with chewed up pizza bread. More drool stretched from his lips and dribbled on his shirt. He didn't understand why no one would try it. The cafeteria women had no idea why there was a bunch of pizza in the trashcan that day.

The Inspiration Behind "Devil's Hour"

Publishing announcement!

The Wicked Library has finally released my story "Devil's Hour." Come listen to it here!

The story behind this is a simple one. A few years ago, I was watching a documentary on feral children. Most of the parents had turned their kids feral. I wondered, "What if the parents could train their child to be like a guard dog?" Of course, who in their right mind would go to such a house? A thief, of course.


(This isn't the house, but it's close)

One summer, when I was getting ready for girl's camp, we had to drop our stuff off at one of the camp director's houses. The place was enormous! She wasn't a nut, but I did base her house off of the mansion.


As for the basement, it's based off a place I stayed in when I was house-sitting with a friend. The place was creepy.

Getting lost in the house was based off of a nightmare I had when I was a little girl.

So this story was years in the making.